Images(3)

Box for Jantzen swimsuit

Maker Jantzen (American, founded 1910)

Date1923 - 1928

Object number00044249

NameBox

MediumInk on paper

DimensionsDisplay dimensions: 65 x 355 x 300 mm, 32 g

ClassificationsTools and equipment

Credit LineANMM Collection

Terms

DescriptionThis 1920s Jantzen swimsuit box features the company's distinctive red diving girl logo used between 1920 and 1928, together with the slogan 'The suit that changed bathing to swimming', used from 1923. The cover of the cardboard box depicts a 1920s beach scene, with men and women wearing classic 1920s knitted swimsuits, accessorised with sun hats, scarves, swimming caps and parasols.HistorySince the 1920s the Jantzen diving girl has been used on swimwear, billboards, catalogues, posters and other advertising media. It has been updated to reflect changes in swimwear fashion, while remaining instantly recognisable as the Jantzen trade mark. The diving girl logo was developed by Russell H. Tandy, and first appeared in a Jantzen swimwear catalogue in 1920. The following year Jantzen launched an advertising campaign using the diving girl on adhesive illustrations which became popular as windscreen stickers. The logo was first used on swimwear in 1923 and featured in a national advertising campaign in the United States along with the slogan 'The Suit That Changed Bathing to Swimming'. This campaign saw the first use of the term 'swimming suit’. Modernised by illustrators Frank and Florenz Clark in 1928, the diving girl logo had by 1931become the seventh most recognised logo in the United States. The 1920s Jantzen diving girl wore a red and white striped swimsuit with stockings and a red cap with a white pom-pom. By the 1930s she had become more streamlined and wore a briefer swimsuit and plain red cap. In 1948 she was redrawn wearing a strapless swimsuit and was revised again in 1980.SignificanceThis box is representative of Jantzen product packaging and design used during the 1920s.